The Austin Powers trailer parodies spy movie conventions through exaggeration and humor. It highlights conventions like treachery, love, and evil villains through over-the-top depictions featuring explosions, kissing, and a diminutive villain. Verbal and visual puns, funny costumes, and split screens add to the absurd comedy. The trailer builds excitement through dramatic music and language before concluding with colorful 1960s-inspired title graphics.

1. -In the middle of the trailer it outlines the conventions of spy movies and makes them very obvious, by
putting the words in bold colours and on screen, then illustrating them while the voice over says them.
-The most obvious ones featured are the words ‘treachery’ and ‘love’ where the danger seen in spy movies
is exaggerated by featuring a man shooting at Powers, them driving away in a car chase and then an
explosion making the convention very obvious. Similarly with love they feature them kissing. This is a
technique we have to use to make it a parody: presenting and making fun of obvious genre conventions.
-Another convention that is exaggerated is the idea of an evil villain through the character ‘Dr. Evil’. His ‘evil’
character is subverted from being destructive to humorous by making his mission to ‘steal Austin Powers
mojo’. Slap dash comedy is also used where he hit’s a person in face with an inflated globe and the villainous
character bashing into his machine instead of going through it.
-These ideas are more humorous and funny opposed to evil, but have the same mise-en-scene as serious spy
movies, implying that the film is a parody and is making fun of the genre. We could do this with conventions
of dance movies, turning serious situations/ scenes created with mise-en-scene and then subverting them
into funny scenes.

2. -The film also uses sexual innuendos to create humour and to make fun of
the convention that spy movies often feature sexy bombshell heroines. This
effect is used to draw in their audience because sex sells, not only through
the use of using attractive actresses but also through language and
innuendos.
-Another comical effect if through the use of language linked with humorous
images, also making the trailer funny. For example in the trailer, their is the
pun of the narrator saying ‘but’ which could have a double meaning because
of the use of lack of sartorial codes and the two hams in the place of Powers’
‘butt’. Puns like these are often used throughout the movie and are good,
small features that can evoke comedy. We could use similar puns to make
reference to aspects from the genre.
-There is also the added comedy of having a miniature version of the evil villain, and this is shown through
the exaggeration of conventions when they emphasise the difference in height by using shadow to create a
larger image and then a quick panning down shot for dramatic effect.
-There is also a dramatic use of lightening bolts which is conventional of
villains in spy movies. However, this is done when he step through a door,
not when he is about to do something very evil, so the exaggeration bring
humour to the trailer, a technique we could use: exaggeration. There is
again the use of slapdash comedy with this character as he dramatically
punches Powers in the face multiple times.

3. Austen Powers heavily uses Mike Myers star person to market their film. They mention his name many times
at the end because he play many different characters and so is placed in many different comedic scenes to
really make use of his comical acting. His different characters means he has to undergo wearing numerous
costumes that in themselves can cause humour for the audience.
-Funny costume no. 1= a pink synchronized -Funny costume no. 2= an Irish overweight postman and
swimming costume. This feminine costume setting/costume no. 3= is Dr. Evil on the Jerry Springer
makes Myers look comedic but does actually fit show...all comedic settings that make fun of the
in with his character of Austen Powers. stereotypes he is trying to play.
-Similarly they use Heather
Graham’s name also, who had
been in many films before this
one and so using her name
would bring her fans to watch
the film
-The tone of the trailer changes here as there is a faster pace
then the rest implying the trailer is near the end and that the
film builds to an exciting climax.
-These have a dramatic voice over, making the words seem big
and overly dramatic, emphasising this is a parody film. There is -At the end these titles show up and big
also hyperbolic language used, Austen Powers being on it’s bold colours and writing. This makes the
own slide to emphasise his name and adventure on it’s own end of the trailer seem big, exciting and fun.
to reinforce the adventure spy movie genre.

4. -Another technique used to
create a sense of an ending and
building drama is through the use
of having a split screen showing
different parts of the movie.
These are in different colours and
are at different shot distances to
-The split screen also resembles the famous 1940s but then became make the trailer screen look more
popular in the 60s due to Yves Saint Laurent’s dress, with the straight dynamic and action pact.
lines, giving a 60s feeling, linking it to the time it is set in.
-At the end are the opening titles which represents the film in the form of a
logo using specific typography. Austen Powers’ ending title features a
multicoloured 60s inspired typography that implies this movie is light hearted,
fun and is mocking 60s adventure spy films because it exaggerates what the
film titles of that era would be like.
-The music is a playful but energetic 60s inspired song, creating -However, the ending titles aren’t the end of
a sense of building excitement. However, louder trumpets rise the trailer, it shows other funny scenes in
when the date show on screen to draw attention to it, possibly between the date and title to keep the
even more than the film title, because it’s a sequel and people audience interested, making the
already know about it. information more memorable.